The Food Thread - comments and recommendations

[SGB]

Does anyone remember the tomato salsa-flavoured CC's? God, I loved that flavour. I really wish CC's still made them.

[SkyWarp91]

Does anyone remember the tomato salsa-flavoured CC's? God, I loved that flavour. I really wish CC's still made them.

I remember them, they were pretty good tasting - but our house didn't buy that much CCs, nor corn chips for that matter. Are CCs still around?

[griffin]

My favourite variety of M&Ms are finally in Australia - Almond!!!
One less item of junk food for me to gorge on in America...

I thought it was strange that after many years of these being in America and finally coming here, it looks like they stopped releasing them in America recently, as I only found them in one store while I was over there.
Probably a good thing I wasn't intending to gorge on them after all.

[SkyWarp91]

Just noticed that Smith's potato chips have released their own fries, AUSSIE FRIES. Their tagline : 'Because we're not FRENCH!'. What a low-blow to French Fries LOL

[Hursticon]

Just noticed that Smith's potato chips have released their own fries, AUSSIE FRIES. Their tagline : 'Because we're not FRENCH!'. What a low-blow to French Fries LOL

LOL! - That's awesome!

[Zippo]

Well, if the New Zealand Potato Chip market wasn't already full .. I spotted Red Rock chips in the local supermarket the other day - MADE IN AUSTRALIA.

[gantz]

Chilli Cheese Twisties!!

[griffin]

It's ironic then that 'French Fries' used to be made by Smiths, but then Arnotts bought/acquired the 'label', who then sold it onto an Australian company... and now Smiths want to start selling that style of potato chip again.

(This got a bit confusing to work out, but I think I've got the timeline/history of the different chip brands in Australia over the last 10-15 years sorted out)

So Smiths used to make French Fries, among other brands....

By 1989 CocaColaAmatil had acquired and developed various Chips brands, including Smiths, CCs, Samboy, Twisties, Burger Rings and French Fries, under the name of CCA Snackfoods.

In 1993 CCA Snackfoods was sold to a UK company and renamed as Smiths Snackfood Company.

Arnotts (I think only made Thins at this time) was bought by American company Campbells in 1997 and sold their Thins brand to Smiths. (perhaps the new owners didn't want to be making potato chips, yet)

Smiths was bought by American company Frito-Lay in 1998 (which is owned by PepsiCo). (Thins was relabelled as Lays Thins for a short while, despite the Thins brand being 'offloaded' with a number of other brands. Lays Thins were soon rebranded as Smiths Crisps)
Because US Frito-Lay had their own brands of chips including Doritos, Cheetos and Lays Thins - Smiths/Frito-Lay were forced to 'offload' several 'Australian' brands out of their 'monopoly', into a new company called Snack Brands Australia that same year (CCs, Thins, French Fries, Cheezels, Samboy), to appease the ACCC.
This US owned company (Snack Brands Australia) was eventually sold to Snack Foods Ltd (an Australian Company) in 1999 to complete the deal with the ACCC.
Smiths still exists to this day as a US owned company, with their remaining brands - Doritos, Red Rock Deli, Cheetos, Smiths (crisps & crinkles), Burger Rings, Twisties, Stax, Grainwaves, Parkers Pretzels and Nobbys Nuts.

Now only 3 years later, that Australian Company (SFL - which had bought Smiths 'offloaded' company), was bought by UK-owned Arnotts/Campbells in 2002. (which meant Arnotts re-acquired their Thins brand after a 5 year absence)

But only 6 years after that, this UK-owned Snack Foods Ltd (by Arnotts/Campbells) was sold to (Australian) Real McCoy Snackfoods in 2008, making those brands 100% Australian made and owned once again. (and we saw Samboy produced once again)
Real McCoy then renamed themselves as Snack Brands Australia (taking on the company name that Smiths originally created in 1998)

So now in 2011, US-owned Smiths are making 'Aussie Fries' to compete against their formerly owned brand 'French Fries', which is currently being produced by an Australian Company Snack Brands Australia (a name they also created)...
Yes, the Australian company makes French Fries, while the non-Australian Company makes Aussie Fries.

(this was all done through wiki searches... so some details could be off)

[SkyWarp91]

So to sum up what Griffin said, Smiths did a lo-blow to ACSBA

[griffin]

CCs have gotten their own back at Smiths (who own Doritos), by releasing a 2-flavour "smash" pack. The concept has two flavours in the one pack, which works if the two flavours go well together, as the artificial flavours stay on the chips (until you touch them, and then it seems to stick to your hands), so don't rub off much in the pack. This lets you pick one chip at a time and experience two different flavours with the one purchase... but then you can grab more than one chip and mix the flavours to give you a new flavour.
In this pack they have Sweet Chilli & Sourcream with Tasty Cheese.
The reason I mentioned Doritos - last year I found two different packs in America of that concept, so now, if Doritos ever decide to bring to Australia the concept they probably developed, it would look like they copied CCs.

And Kettle Chips are also having a go at Smiths (who own Grainwaves), by just releasing their own versions of Grainwaves, with Honey BBQ and Sweet Chilli/Sourcream flavours.